Malta’s President George Vella will speak to each individual MP of the Nationalist Party to verify a confidence vote before potentially removing Adrian Delia as Opposition Leader.

A constitutional crisis has erupted in Malta after Delia refused to step down after losing a confidence vote in the PN’s parliamentary group by 19 votes to 11.

MPs Chris Said and Claudette Buttigieg informed Vella that Delia had lost the majority support of Opposition MPs during a meeting yesterday.

However, Delia, who held his own meeting with Vella, defiantly announced later in an address that he remained very much the PN and Opposition Leader.

Malta’s constitution makes it clear that the President is obliged to remove the Opposition Leader should he lose the support of MPs. However, Delia has interpreted it differently, insisting that the leader of the second-largest political party must by parliament’s Opposition Leader.

Delia has vowed to stay on as PN Leader until the end of the legislature, insisting that the PN’s paid-up members had elected him to the role of leader.

If the President intervenes, Therese Comodini Cachia is likely to be appointed to Opposition Leader.

Should Delia stay on, the PN could end up in the anomalous situation of having a separate Party Leader and an Opposition Leader.

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